One Response to “The Best of Pictures: The Greatest Show on Earth”

To be (slightly) fair to the academy in regards to Limelight, it was just the rules of the time that eligibility was based on initial L.A. release date (regardless of when a film was made/year of release elsewhere in the world) rather than just gerrymandering to give Chaplin a competitive Oscar. These days eligibility rules much tighter and a movie must be released in L.A. the same/following year to any release anywhere in the world to qualify for consideration. But that’s not to let the Oscar’s off the hook for baffling behaviour – the 20 year old Limelight (probably) only won because the originally nominated Godfather was later disqualified because Rota reused a melody from a previous score (Fortunella) and then in their infinite wisdom they handed the best original score Oscar for 1974 to Godfather II which basically reuses the musical cues of the previously disqualified Godfather!